Smokey's Concise Reviews
(I'm only half way through writing this and ^ already feels like a lie.
Yup, it's a lie.)
This is my first review, the title may give away the fact I hoped this would be short but as I kept typing I felt I had to make sure I got out the right information. I liked this game a lot and some of the reason I'm writing is just to get my own thoughts straight on what both worked. Any and all criticisms or tips on this review are appreciated.
Valdis Story is an indie, Kickstarted 2D action game with lush visuals and pretty rockin' soundtrack by Zack Parrish. This is a "Metroidvania" style game and as loathe as I am to use that word it gets some of the core concepts of the game across clearly. Well,Metroid May Cry would be more accurate. The game game begins with your character, Wyatt or Reina (and it looks like two other playable characters are in the works), being shipwrecked while hunting a demon and your crew scattered. The story is an interesting take on the "war between angels and demons with humans caught in the middle" archetype and while there is innocents on both sides, neither side is innocent. You will have to forge your own path, facing both angels and demons.
The classic Metroid exploration and progression is present with keys and spells that you gain that will allow you to revisit areas and find secrets or take previously blocked paths. The combat is combo orientated à la the Devil May Cry, where increased experience is the payoff for longer combos. Which brings us to the RPG elements present. No, no, don't recoil, they actually do add to the game in fun, non-arbitrary ways.
The Good:
The combat:
It really is quite good. Out of recent-ish games it reminded me of Dust: An Elysian Tail but the most obvious comparison is to the Devil May Cry series. There's a light and heavy attack button while jump can be used in a combo to act as a launcher, magic can be cast by holding down a modifier and a direction. Emphasis is put on building combos, using a mix of heavy and light attacks as well as air mix-ups, magic attacks and even an MvC style assist where you can call in a member of your crew that you have found throughout the game, each with their own attack. Early on in the game you obtain a scroll that gives you a short, cool-down based dash which not only doubles as a way to dodge attacks due to it's i-frames (you're invincible in the dash) but is essential to solving puzzles later on. Of course, while not as heavy as a DMC soundtrack, the music for the game does ramp in all the right areas and really adds to the tension of the harder fights.
While I haven't done all of them myself it does look like the game caters to the type of play-style you like and I can at least vouch for the attack focused style. Looking at the defensive tree I saw skills that rewarded well timed dodges and a nod to just-frame moves where if you block at the right time enemies are staggered while the magic path seemed pretty strong in its own right, if not quite as interesting as the other two.
The Skill System and the RPG elements:
When you level up you are awarded an attribute point and a skill point. The attributes (Str, Mag, Luck, Agi) are pretty self evident in how they affect your damage, resistances, hp etc. What is more interesting is the skill system which essential splits into three categories that reflect different play-style, attack, defense and and magic. This is something I really liked as it gave me the option of playing the same character in a way that appealed to me. One example in how the warrior (attack focused) skill tree encouraged aggression was when I found a nice combo of skills that meant when my attacks crit enemies started bleeding, and when enemies were bleeding I had hp regen.
This actually worked well with the equipment I was using at the time and the game gave that Diablo vibe of being rewarded for finding synergies between your abilities and items.
Just a small note on the equipment here, specifically the "armour". I was really surprised and heartened to see armour that wasn't just padded stats, the different pieces you collect all have their own effects. The piece that I specifically noticed that significantly changed my approach top fights was one that boosted my next magic spell after I quit. This fundamentally changed how I was fighting a boss I was having difficulty with and lead to me having fun, playing smarter and beating him.
The Bosses:
There are some unique bosses that are done smartly in this game that I think are better experienced than read about, so I'll just say that a lot of them evoked memories of Dark Souls, in that you have to pay attention to them, look out for their tells and weaknesses and play better to defeat them. Coming back with a complete different gameplan was also viable. One last thing that I thought was damn great was that you were ranked on how well you did against the boss based on time and damage taken and how you fought (combos). Get an A rank or higher by playing well and your rewards are bonus skill and stat points, scrape through by the skin of your teeth with an F rank and get like 30 points of XP. This creates an interesting incentive to reload to before a boss if you think you can come back and do better. The lesson I did take away from this game's bosses was that player skill is more important than stats. Not to spoil them but I did like that a lot of fights were more than just wail away on the boss until someone dies.
Enemies and tangible differences between difficulties:
I really like the enemy design in this game, and its not something I pay close attention to that often. In fact it was going back to play on a lower difficulty (and later two difficulties higher) that I really appreciated the enemy AI and general design in the game. In the harder difficulties it isn't just the typical hp and other stat buffs that are given to basic mobs. The later version of enemies are introduced much earlier, they have some completely new moves (stealth was the first example I saw) and different attack patterns. One basic enemy in the early game has an interrupt for a specific combo (H/L hit->launch iirc) and has an entire counter just for that specific combo, which really impressed me to be honest. Going back to earlier difficulties and not seeing these moves made me realize how easily I could have taken these small, but great touches for granted.
The Bad:
NPC names:
This, while small is a little worrying to me. When the devs have established nomenclature for the world they create it becomes gratingly obvious when some NPCs were named by Kickstarter backers. It really pulls you out of the world when one of these obvious names comes along and I will be apprehensively nervous about this in future KS projects. It really is super obvious at times which is the worst part, I didn't even know that naming NPCs was a reward tier, but as soon as I saw certain names I knew that this was not what the developers wanted to call these NPCs.
Getting hit= stun lock:
A pet peeve, but also can be incredibly frustrating, especially on some of the dangerous puzzles.
Balance:
This is the big one for me. Don't worry you don't come across horribly cheap enemies (except maybe the damned ice witches). I'm talking strict numbers in terms of loot drops and weapons. Loot is used to trade, improve your gear and make hp/mp charms and other accessories. However in my experience towards the latter half of the game the items you need are from early on and become rarer and harder to find due to the world, enemies and in turn loot scaling up with you. This is frustrating as it makes you feel like you need to go out and grind for the items you need.
In terms of weapons, this is completely subjective but I felt that none (bar one for Reina) of the extra weapons offered a viable alternative because of the numbers involved (dmg, crit, etc. etc.). Each alternative weapon had advantages and drawbacks but to me it never felt like the good outweighed the bad or that the good simply never outweighed what you were using at the time (except one of Reina's).
An ability you get late in the game:
It relates to exploration. They make you wait all game for it. I was expecting this much earlier as its a staple of this genre but damn they waited so long I started to think it wasn't in the game. This is another pet peeve issue. (left it out what it was as I cant get spoiler tags working in a review it seems)
Limited two button combos became somewhat stale towards end game:
Exactly what it says on the tin. This game gave me a deeper appreciation and understanding of why the Devil May Cry series sells combos and other moves. It keeps it fresh and gives you new attacks to pull off and to chain into your go to favourite combos.
The Interesting or Things you Should Know:
-Because of complaints of normal mode being too hard the devs renamed the difficulties so that the old easy setting is now normal difficulty because of the negative connotations with "easy"
-Looks like there's two characters coming down the road, as in the character select screen they are grayed out.
-I completed the game on normal with Wyatt. I started on hardcore with Reina, got kind of close to the end and wanted to see how Wyatt played and just sort of blew threw it with him.
-Early on you get a Master Scroll, this is your dash, its down+left/right
-There are miss-ables, bosses, items, crew and other, nothing that gates progress but just be aware.
-This is a pretty subjective review, with 0 research besides actually playing the game and reading a few forum posts. My complaints about weapons might be complete disregarded by someone else for example.
If you got this far thanks for reading.